US immigration officials have arrested a Haitian woman after baggage screeners found a human head in her luggage at a Florida airport. Myrlene Severe, 30, has been charged with failing to declare the head on a customs form and transporting "hazardous material". She arrived at Florida's Fort Lauderdale airport on Thursday on a flight from Cap Haitien in north Haiti. Ms Severe said that the head was to ward off evil sprits, officials said. "Severe stated that she had obtained the package, which contained a human head, from a male in Haiti for use as part of her voodoo beliefs," the US Attorney's Office said in a statement. A spokesman for Miami's immigration and customs agency told the AFP news agency that the head was not simply a skull. "It had teeth, hair and skin, and quite a lot of dirt," she said. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

Indian army troops have been deployed and a curfew imposed after clashes in the north-eastern state of Assam. On Friday, two policemen and five demonstrators were killed during a riot in Kakopathar, in Tinsukia district. Police said they opened fire to disperse a crowd protesting against the death in custody of a man suspected of having links with separatists. United Liberation Front of Assam rebels have been fighting for a separate Assamese homeland for nearly 30 years. Authorities imposed a curfew in Kakopathar and many adjoining areas, as tension spread with news of the police firing. According to police, thousands of protesters had converged on a police station and tried to burn it down. "The mob was advancing on the local police station, forcing security forces to fire in self-defence," district police superintendent Debojit Hazarika was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4703262.stm

More than 4,000 UK mainstream Muslims joined a protest against controversial cartoons satirising their Prophet Muhammad in London's Trafalgar Square. There had been fears the rally may have been disrupted by extremists, but it proved to be a trouble free afternoon. Protesters waved banners calling for unity against Islamophobia. The event aimed to explain the views of moderate Muslims towards cartoons published in a Danish newspaper which led to worldwide protests. Organisers also said it wanted to dissociate the mainstream Muslim community from a "minority of extremists". Coach loads of demonstrators arrived at the rally called United Against Incitement & Islamophobia, which got off to a peaceful start at about 1340 GMT on Saturday. Among them was Hanifa Brka, a 29 year-old student from Birmingham, who said: "This is the heart of our faith we believe it is wrong to talk badly about the prophet. "I would like to send a message to all honest Christians we are all brothers and sisters"...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4700482.stm

An incomplete tunnel was found in the same area where investigators recently found one of the longest passages discovered beneath the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said.The 3-foot-wide tunnel extended from just south of the border fence in Mexico to a point about 23 feet into the United States, ending at a concrete levee, Border Patrol spokesman Richard Kite said....http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/11/border.tunnel.ap/index.html?section=cnn_us

Pakistan's president said Saturday that an American missile attack last month killed a close relative of al-Qaida's No. 2 leader and a terror suspect sought by the United States. It was the first time that Gen. Pervez Musharraf has provided details about the terror suspects killed in the strike. Until now, he has only said that "foreigners" had died. "Five foreigners were killed in the U.S. attack in Bajur. One of them was a close relative of Ayman al-Zawahri and the other man was wanted by the U.S. and had a $5 million reward on his head," Musharraf told a gathering of tribal elders at the residence of the interior minister in the northwestern city of Charsada. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1606892&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Adventurer Steve Fossett has broken the record for the longest non-stop flight in aviation history. Fossett, 61, took the record as he flew over Shannon in Ireland. In total he has flown 26,389.3 miles around the globe since lift-off on Wednesday. He planned to end his journey at Kent International airport at Manston but was forced to divert to Bournemouth. The aviator landed safely despite an electrical failure on his Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer aircraft. "That meant really we had to get him on the ground within 15 minutes to the nearest airport," said chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, Steve Ridgeway. "The plane wouldn't have made it to Manston [Kent International Airport]. "And we couldn't risk him ditching the aircraft. So it was essential to get him on the ground." ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4704762.stm